Ever since, strong diplomatic relations have ensued between India and the Czech Republic. Ambassador Hovorka talks about the establishment of the Czech Bata Works in Batanagar in Calcutta in 1930. Bata, of course, went on ­to become a household name in India. Tatra has been supplying military trucks to India. Czech educational institutions are interested in exchange programmes with their Indian counterparts. They are constantly working to attract more Indian students. Relations in trade, investment and tourism are deepening. Interestingly enough, the volume of mutual trade increased during the ongoing pandemic due to greater exports of mobile phones from India to the Czech Republic.

Skoda Auto is flourishing in India with 106 outlets. The Pune facility currently produces the Volkswagen Polo, Ameo, Vento, and the Rapid, while the Aurangabad facility produces premium and luxury models of Skoda, Volkswagen and Audi. Between the two facilities and including the sales and marketing teams of the five passenger car brands, Skoda Auto Volkswagen India employs over 4,800 people across the country. They are valuable contributors to the Make in India initiative.

Cover Page - November 2017	Cover Page - October 2018

As you’ll learn during the course of the interview there are many other significant Czech players in the Indian market that are taking relations between the two nations to the next level. While traditionally there have been large opportunities for Czech engineering firms to supply machinery and equipment to India, newer ones are opening up in artificial intelligence. Many Indian institutions are convinced that Czech technologies are the right ones to choose when it comes to handling the necessary technological transformation.

We’ve also laid out an entire segment on tourism in Czechia. From Prague voted as the seventh best city in the world to live in, to Moravia and Silesia, North Bohemia and South Bohemia, East and West Bohemia, Vysocina and Central Bohemia, we’ve tried to be all inclusive. Laudably, Czechia has gone up a notch from the year before to rank 18 in the World Happiness Report of 2021. When it comes to the Global Peace Index, the nation ranks 9. All this makes for a peaceful, happy and secure nation that presents a perfect blend for doing business, working, studying and exploring tourism opportunities.

We do hope you like what we’ve on Czechia. Happy reading.

(sayantanc@gmail.com)